


Break Of Day

by Hakuryen



Series: In these Lands of Everlasting Change [1]
Category: Mozart l'Opéra Rock - Mozart/Baguian & Guirao
Genre: 2/3 backstory 1/3 shipping, Alternative Universe - Fae, Fae AU, M/M, Magic, Mature tag because of swearing topics and because I don't know how to choose, halloween fic, might change title later, slight parental abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-17 02:52:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16507967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hakuryen/pseuds/Hakuryen
Summary: "It was as if they were in a mirrorverse, the place clearly looking like the clearing they had been in just moments before; but everything looked … much different. The red twilight that had been flooding the world was now turned golden, bathing the red-tinted woods in gentle shimmers and breaking on the ground like sea foam."When they're young, every child gets told fairy tales: stories about brave men fighting for what they love, about mischievous goblins causing mayhem, fairies helping humans at need and punishing those who mean nothing but evil.As he grew older, Wolfgang came to realise that all of that was just that.Stories.Yet, when everything he loves is ripped away from him, he once more gets sucked into this world of tales that once delighted him dearly as a child, only to discover that there's nothing fictional about them.





	Break Of Day

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, it's three days after Halloween, but I wrote this as a Halloween fic so I shall tag it as one. I could've made a novel out of this but instead I wrote ~19k words in roughly 4 days and then edited it in two, so sorry if it's quite rushed. I also tried to make this angsty but gave up 1/3 of the way through. Whoops.
> 
> My acknowledgements for this go to Kai, who allowed me to make a bet with her which basically was the only driving force behind this, and for Jo who occasionally allowed me to gush to them about it. Love you two!
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!

The sweltering heat of this beautiful summer day pressed in on his shoulders heavily, as Wolfgang stood above his mother's casket, weeping.

His sister was beside him and next to her stood their father, while the other mourners looked on at the other side of the open grave and the priest at its foot. Wolfgang didn't even register the words of the man's funeral sermon, his eyes trying to focus on his mother's final site of rest through the big tears he couldn't help but shed; he couldn't even find solace in holding his sister's hand, the high temperatures making them sweat and the grip sticky, the weather being way too good and cheery for his _mother's funeral and -_ He wanted her back. 

He wanted her back so badly, but now she was gone, to some illness that had let her suffer for two whole weeks. Nannerl's grip on his hand tightening brought him out of his thoughts, and looking in her direction to send her a questioning glance made him see his father stepping forward. Oh.

It was time.

His father bowed down to the pile of red and white roses that had been laid out in front of the priest, taking a white one and kissing it before letting it fall into the grave, on top of the casket.

Nannerl was next, mirroring his actions, hesitantly dropping another white rose into the ground.

Now it was his turn. He didn't even dare step forward to the roses at first, not wanting to partake in this gruesome parting that tore his heart to shreds, until his sister gently pushed him and he bent down to take one of the red roses. Tenderly, he held it in both his hands, careful not to hurt himself on one of its thorns, until his shaking hands let it, and with it his mother, go.

When he went back to his sister, he finally couldn't take it anymore, and fell into her arms, hiding himself from the world that made him suffer so much. Minutes went by in which he heard the other people throw in their roses, and only when he heard the first shovels hitting the earth to cover the casket with it did he truly break. That was the moment that Nannerl led him away to their carriage, sitting down beside him and hugging him as they both wept for their mother.

They sat there for a while, long enough for their tears to run dry, until Wolfgang could see his father approaching across the graveyard. His face was schooled into a blankness that fitted a casual morning stroll more than coming back from a funeral for your wife. Disbelieving, Wolfgang watched on as their father sat down in front of them and told the coachman to bring them home in a steady voice, lacking of any grief.

He never detested his father more than he did in that moment.

 

The rest of the day in the Mozart household was spent in silence, all of them keeping to themselves and trying to keep their thoughts off of the happenings of the past few days.Wolfgang himself didn't really do anything; he wasn't feeling up to reading, nor his usual day-to-day pastimes, and was perfectly content just sitting on his windowsill while looking outside and listening to his sister playing the piano for hours on end, until she stopped late into the evening. A bit after that, he left his sentinel post to change into his sleeping garments, only to come back to it instead of going to bed. The long summer's day had began reaching its end, with the first red tendrils of twilight putting their clasp around the pale blue sky. It was then that Wolfgang's argus-eyes caught sight of movement in the otherwise still picture of his view. His gaze slowly fell to it, thinking it might just be some animal that had dared leave the forest and now wanted to return, or one of their servants having put in extra hours and now leaving for their own family. But no – it was his father, dressed in one of his more expensive and expressive coats instead of the mourning clothes he had been wearing just hours before. He was walking towards the forest that bordered their property, the forest Nannerl and he had played in so often, and Wolfgang almost wrote it off as him taking a simple walk, but something kept him from doing so. Shaken out of his emotionless grief, he scrambled to get up from his lounging and sprinted to his sisters room, throwing open the door and walking to where she sat on her bed, dressed in her own night gown and reading, to pull her up.

"Wolfie! What's going on?" her exhausted voice reached his chaotic mind.

"Something is not right. It's father. I can't -" I don't trust him right now. I want to have my family close. I can't lose another parent.

He didn't even allow either of them to put on shoes, still ignoring all of Nannerl's protests, as he dragged them across the yard towards the forest, scared of losing sight of his father forever. The closer they got to the first line of trees, the higher the grass grew, until it reached their knees and their bare feet didn't carry them as fast anymore.

Running through the woods proofed to be even more difficult, the wood scabs and plants digging into their soles painfully as they didn't dare look where they tread, lest they lost sight of their father. They thankfully soon caught up to him while still taking enough distance as to not be discovered, and not hurrying and hyperfocusing on their father drew their attention to the general situation they were in. While their feet surely must've been hurting from the torment they'd been put through they couldn't feel them because of how cold they were, and their threadbare nightclothes barely kept the cold at bay. And it made no _sense._ It was summer, and night had barely broken in, so why was it so freezing already? And now that he was taking the time to look around – had the forest always seemed so creepy? It certainly hadn't when they were playing in it as children, and even twilight filling it with eerie red light and dark shadows couldn't make it so.

Even with his mature age of 22, Wolfgang was terrified. He didn't let go of Nannerl's hand.

They kept walking on for ages, their sense of time lost to dread, until their father came to a stand-still amidst a clearing. Apprehensive, they halted and watched closely to see what he'd do. Had he noticed them? Would he turn around? Do nothing at all? But neither of them would've ever expected what were to happen next.

Calm impersonated, their father held the luxuriant cane he always carried with him in front of himself, and jabbed the floor with it a few times. Mesmerised, they watched as the air began to swirl around him, picking up leaves and fallen berries and nuts, and around the vortex something began to grow – mushrooms, brown in colour with wonky stems and caps so big they should've set off the balance.

The wind in the forest picked up, chasing through the treetops, and in front of their eyes, their father began to disappear.

Wolfgang's shock lasted for barely a second before he dashed towards the circle like crazy, Nannerl in hot pursuit of him, their hands enclasping again just a second before they entered the circle, a small gust of wind still swirling around their feet. But nothing happened.

_No_ , Wolfgang thought,  _I can't – I can't bear losing another parent-_

And then the ground felt like it broke open underneath them and his body was being turned inside out, bleached out by blinding white pain, wrung out and pushed through a keyhole into another dimension, and he hit the ground hard and, and … and vomited stale bile right where he lay.

His sister was beside him, clutching her arm and making a pained face. Wolfgang put a hand on her cheek to comfort her, before he lifted his head and looked straight at his father's back. He was standing a few dozen feet before them, composed as always, nothing like the state his children were in. For a second, Wolfgang was relieved, until he took in his surroundings. It was as if they were in a mirrorverse, the place clearly looking like the clearing they had been in just moments before; but everything looked … much different. The red twilight that had been flooding the world was now turned golden, bathing the red-tinted woods in gentle shimmers and breaking on the ground like sea foam, while the world around them seemed still opposed to the eery noises they had been confronted with in the forest. Now that any noise was missing, Wolfgang wished back the eeriness. The windless stillness of the treetops and the lack of any animal noises made him feel more uneasy than he ever had before. Suddenly, his attention got pulled back to his father.

Leopold had begun inhaling deeply, and like magic, a strong breeze was created and rushed towards him as if _he_ was calling it to him; Wolfgang almost thought of it as a coincidence, had his father not exhaled again just a second later, sending a visible wave of golden wind over the land in front of him. It even shimmered a bit, as if it had glinting pollen inside of it, or specks of sorcery, and if the wind before had been a soft breeze, the beginning of tide, this one was a whole tsunami, a force of nature brushing over the land, bending the trees under its force.

They must've made a surprised sound, because just a blink later, their father had turned around to them with a cold look on his face.

"You should turn around," he told, _ordered_ , them. "Before they find and capture you."

"Father, thank god-" Wolfgang began to talk, but got interrupted by Nannerl, who has speaking through gritted teeth.

"Father," she growled. "Where are we? Who do you mean by 'them'? What the _fuck-_ "

"Please, Maria, where are you manners?" He had walked forwards and pushed her chin up with his cane. "Why did you leave the house in this state, have I not taught you better? And, please, do get up and stand with more dignity."

Wolfgang scrambled to do as he was told immediately, even though his stomach was still feeling off and like he might bend over and retch again at any second, but Nannerl was either having trouble or she was refusing to follow the order. Until their father put the cane down a centimetres, only to let it jump up again to hit the same spot it had touched before. Thankfully, it must not have been to hard as Nannerl only winced. Still, Wolfgang kneeled down to soothingly touch the spot and to help her get up.

They both struggled to stand up straight, but were upright at least which their father seemed to be satisfied with. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something again, but got distracted by something on the clearing's edge.  
"Ah, it's too late already," he whispered before throwing his arms outwards in a grand gesture and speaking up loudly. "So you've heard my call, I'm glad. Please do come out so that we may look each other in the eyes."  
Apprehensive, Wolfgang and Nannerl looked in the direction he was looking in, expecting a man to set foot into the clearing, but instead more than a dozen people came out. It was a mixture of both women and men, with the occasional androgynous person thrown in, and they all had either blonde or rusty hair and glowing bronze skin, and they wore clothing from airy fabrics that only remotely resembled the garments Wolfgang was used to. Some of the women even wore _trousers_. What astonished him most, though, was the the intricately carved sticks all of them were carrying; most of them were barely a foot long, while some resembled his father's cane or looked like staffs that stood taller than their bearers."Your ma- Grace. You're back already? It has barely been a few decades." One of them had stepped forward and begun talking to their father, their staff lowered non-threateningly. "Please remove your glamour inside these lands, this facade is not fitting of you."

Their father's eyes quickly flitted over them, before he looked back towards the person that had been speaking to him and sighed softly. What happened next let Wolfgang's eyes widen in astonishment - it was not the weirdest thing he had seen that day, but this was something that affected his father directly, something he could not deny. Before their eyes, he transformed. His white hair that he usually carried in the typical court fashion suddenly lay flat and long over his shoulders, while the tips of his ears seemed to elongate a few centimetres. When he looked towards them again, his eyes weren't brown anymore, but a striking amber gold.Nannerl's nails digged into his flesh painfully as she held his arm stronger and even lifted her hurt arm to clutch his hand.

"Yes," Leopold addressed the person again without taking his eyes off his children. "Some … unfortunate circumstances have led me to return earlier than intended. Please do escort me back to the capital so that I may rest. Opening a rift on the other side has drained me greatly."

"And what about these two? If they are humans who have followed you we should - wait. What's wrong with their ears?"

Until then, Wolfgang and Nannerl had stood still like deer in coachlights, but at that comment their heads whipped towards each other so that they could look at the other's ears. And - it was true. What was wrong with Nannerl's ears? They weren't as long as their father's, but they had an undeniable pointy end; afraid of what he would find, Wolfgang led the hand that wasn't currently being held by Nannerl to his right ear and traced its form. Its _pointy_ form. Desperate for any calming familiarity, Wolfgang's eyes jumped over the strangers ears, but they all looked like his father's, so he looked back to his sister but she looked so strange too and he felt like he was going to hyperventilate his eyes were hurting from the strange lighting and unshed tears how could this be real surely this was a dream please let it be a dream - suddenly, something tugged on his hand. He looked down to see that it was Nannerl, who was still clasping it, and - and this was familiar. Their hands held no strange features, the clothing that he saw when looking down was normal to him, and he felt himself calming down. He heard footsteps around him, but still didn't take his eyes off their clasped hands; not even when he was suddenly being tugged forwards and forced into walking, not even when hot white pain shot through his abused feet and twilight turned into frigid night. Their group walked in silence; their father seemed to know the strangers and they him but they still didn't converse throughout the whole march that seemed to drag on for hours. At least it seemed that way to Wolfgang's exhausted mind, and to his maltreated feet for which every step felt like a mile. Finally , the cold forest floor turned into a trail, and the trail into a a dirt street, until the soles of his feet where met with cool stone plates of intricate designs. Having come from a wealthy family, Wolfgang was no stranger to pomposity, but this seemed way too lavish even to him; having a street plastered with stones of which each most've cost as much as a month's budget of a middle class family? Having calmed down by then and feeling curious, Wolfgang looked up. He gaped.They were on the edge of a grand city, but it was unlike any he had ever seen before. Many of the buildings stood taller than even the grandest palace or cathedral, caressing the whimsy clouds up high, and many of them were build from pure stone. What astonished him most, though, were the ones that looked as if they were cut from precious stones, from jewels so bright they reflected the lights in bright colours. He wondered how it must look in broad daylight, or if the insides were just as impressive. They didn't go into any of these buildings, though, but travelled further into the heart of the city. There were a lot of people on the streets, of which many looked like the strangers that were escorting them, but some others like the total opposite. They were wearing the same kind of clothes, too, theirs just seemed more casual or prettier than the utilitarian garments of their guards, and Wolfgang noted that they also had long ears like his father, and that they were looking at their group in a mixture of awe and surprise.

"Pinch me, Nannerl, I think I'm dreaming," Wolfgang whispered huskily.

"I'd think the same if the pain in my arm wasn't so real," she whispered back and Wolfgang immediately laid his worried gaze on her. Her arm had indeed taken on bruising, and she seemed to be taking care not to move it to much outside of their hand-holding, so Wolfgang took care not to jostle it too much either.

After a while stretched with even more silence, they came upon a huge courtyard in what must've been the middle of the city. The core of the it was a huge circular building set in white stone with thousands of tinted windows and a roof that changed colours depending on how it got hit by the light, while the rest of the place consisted of a beautiful park. He almost expected to be led around the plaza and further into the opposite side of the city than they came from, but instead, they seemed to be aiming straight for the city core - the big circular, almost palace-like structure.

After trodding through an endless labyrinth of corridors, they entered what looked like a throne room, with massive pillars made out of white marble with heavy golden veins and a set of pompous stairs that led up to a golden throne cushioned with red velvet. Other than their group, only a few guards and what looked to be the occasional servant were present, yet they still halted in front of the staircase and the empty throne. And they waited. Minutes went by, the last daylight leaving the earth and causing the heavy chandeliers in the rooms to be lit as if by magic, brightening the vast room much more than normal fire should; some of the people who had been in the hall before had left, but even more new faces had turned up, dressed in aristocratic gocwns and mumbling amongst themselves, throwing examining glances at their father's poised form and then at Wolfgang's and Nannerl's cowering ones. He felt so out of place as he never had before, in his dirtied nightgown, barefoot and dishevelled by everything that had happened in the past few hours, amid these magical people and enchanting structures. And him feeling uneasy meant that a situation was truly foreign. Suddenly, big doors to the side of the hall swung open and a man dressed in royal clothing followed by an entourage of other people strode in and sat down on the throne, before finally deeming the Mozart family worthy of his gaze.

"Oh," he drawled in a mocking tone, "if it isn't our dear former king. What brings you back so soon? Has that wife of yours that you left your throne for decided that you're not worth her time anymore?"

If Wolfgang wasn't so gobsmacked by their father being referred to as a king, he would be surprised by how many people in the room hissed at the man on the throne when he finished speaking. His father himself seemed unimpressed.

"It doesn't surprise me in how much disregard you hold our ideals, Hieronymous," he remarked. "I left for true love and not in disgrace. Even if mortality hadn't pried her away from me so early, I would've only left this realm for about half a century. It's been a bit over three decades now, Hieronymous, and while you surely enjoyed my throne in this short period, I'd love to take it back now."

'Hieronymous' looked queasy, and his short bellowing laugh mirrored that.

"Who do you think you are, Leopold? You may stem from sacred blood, but you left your throne for a human. A king's focus should lay on his own kingdom, but you turned your back on us to leave for another realm. The summer court may believe in true love, but a member of the sacred family falling in love with a mere human and choosing them over their own people.. You aren't fit to be king anymore."

Where the nobles in the room hissed at Hieronymous before, they now seemed to agree with him, and when Wolfgang glanced at his father from where he stood a few feet behind him to his right, he could see that he seemed to be struggling to come to a solution, when abruptly, Leopold turned his head back towards him and laid his eyes on Wolfgang with burning intensity.

"Fine, I may not be accepted as king anymore, but my descendants have done nothing to warrant being banned from the throne." His sure, loud voice echoed through the room like thunder, and Wolfgang felt his knees going weak, but thankfully still holding out. Him, a prince? That might've been a childhood fantasy, but being told he actually was one, much more in this strange land - did they call it another realm? - when he had just lost his mother and only seen his father's true form mere hours ago ... it was all too much. Hieronymous's cackling broke through his mind like mirror cracks.

"Those are your children?! And you want one of those half-human bastards to become our ruler; have you gone mad? Have they even set foot into our world ever before this day?"

"They may be half-human, but their other half is of sacred blood and thus they are much more entitled to this throne than you _mere true blood,_ " their father countered and even though Wolfgang did not understand what he was talking about, the dozens of other people in the room seemed to do as they deafeningly agreed with him, which in turn seemed to push Hieronymous into a corner.

"Fine, but that does not change the fact that your children are untrained and have no experience about how this world works. How is either of them supposed to be a good ruler if they neither have the knowledge to lead nor the power to defend and act?"

Their father seemed to consider this. After a few moments, he spoke up again.

"Give me until the autumn equinox to train them, at which point all the rulers will be in the capital for the bestowing ceremony. We may have a vote on the day before, and if my son is seen as fit to rule he will have further six months until the spring equinox to observe and learn how to lead."

The current king seemed to have nothing to say about this as he nodded, defeated, after just a second of staring down.

"Fine, you shall be given one of the palace rooms. However, I want your children in one of our holding cells for the time being, lest they run off and do something stupid."

"Of course, your majesty," their father answered in a mocking manner and turned around to leave the throne room without waiting for a dismissal from Hieronymous.

 

The room they were led to was small, holding two narrow single beds with colourful threadbare covers and pillows, a pretty wooden dresser and a small table with two chairs; it held another door of which Wolfgang assumed that it must hide a bathroom behind it. The only sign of this being a place of capture were the silver bars in front of the tiny window. Neither Nannerl nor he thanked the man who had brought them here or said anything to him, they merely waited for him to close and lock the door behind them before they finally looked at each other. Wolfgang could feel the tears in his eyes, but they just wouldn't fall, and through this veil he could see his sisters despaired expression. Simultaneously, they fell into each others arms.So much had happened that day, their mother's funeral, their father unsuccessful plan to abandon them, them being dragged into a wholly foreign world ... every cell in his body yearned for this to be just a nightmare. But he knew his sleeping mind wouldn't be able to dream up the feeling of dirt on his skin, of the nauseating taste that still lay on his tongue, of his feet having been so mistreated that they had grown numb, of the freezing temperatures in this room gnawing at his bones. Without another word, they fell into one of the beds together, pressed tight against another in an attempt to comfort each other in this strange world. Like this, they fell asleep, plagued by real nightmares of what had happened to them that day.

 

 

~*~

 

 

The next day, they got woken up by a row of tight knocks on their door. Wolfgang's whole body was aching, and the threadbare blanket had done little to keep the cold at bay; his sleep-addled mind didn't yet recall the previous day and for a second he was back in his youth, when Nannerl and he often slept under the stars on warm summer nights after hours of exploring. Then he opened his eyes.

The knocks repeated themselves and were also accompanied by a voice this time.

"Are you awake? I've come to look after you and get you ready for the day. I am going to open the door now." After that, they could hear their door being unlocked and just a moment later, a pretty girl with long golden locks stepped in and smiled brightly, even though Wolfgang and Nannerl were still perched up in bed, surely looking like hell. She, on the other hand, looked like a princess, dressed in a soft lilac dress that reached her ankles and left her arms exposed, allowing Wolfgang to admire her intricate golden body jewellery.

"My name is Constanze," she introduced herself after closing the door behind her, "I'm the third child of Queen Cäcilia of the Spring Court, and got asked to help the both of you to adjust outside of King Leopold's lessons."

Oh, Wolfgang thought and sat up properly, she really _was_ a princess. Nannerl too had sat up, and was looking at Constanze in awe. The both of them were no stranger to looking at royalty, but this was on a whole other level.

"I'm Maria, but you can call me Nannerl," she answered, "and this is my brother, Wolfgang. Could you please explain what has happened to us?"

Constanze's angelic features twisted in dismay. "Have they not explained anything to you?" She then walked over to them and gracefully kneeled down on the floor before them, looking at them with wide eyes. "Is it true that you're half human? I have never seen ears like yours, have they always been like that?"

They hesitantly nodded at the first question and shook their heads at the second.

"Hm, that's interesting. You have never been to our world before, right? Has your father at least told you about your heritage before yesterday?"

"No," Wolfgang's voice cracked around the syllable, and in sympathy she took his hand in her right one and Nannerl's in the other.

"You poor things must be confused, then. You are now in the Lands of Everlasting Change, another realm overlapping with yours, though much smaller. It's home to us, the Fae, and now to you, too."

It wasn't a lot of information, but Wolfgang didn't think he could've digested any more. Fae? As in Fairy Tales? Was he still dreaming? A dark cloud of denial and distress shrouded his already mourning mind.

"I know that this must be rather sudden for you, but I promise you that our world is as real as yours and just as beautiful, too. Now let's get you dressed in something other than these rags." She put on a smile again, probably as an attempt to cheer up Nannerl and him, who were far from their usual chipper self. When Wolfgang stood up properly, he immediately let himself fall back again in pain, whimpering at how much his feet hurt.

"What's wrong?" Constanze sounded alarmed, "Are you hurt? Have they not checked you over? I am so terribly sorry, I'm going to kill these guards-" She had sprung up and towards the door to yank it open and shout at somebody in the corridor. "You! Get a healer and bring them here!"

Then, she kneeled down in front of them and softly lifted up one of Wolfgang's feet to examine it, gasping. "I wish I could heal this myself, I'm so sorry, but my healing magic isn't the best and I fear doing more wrong than right." She then also gently lifted up one of Nannerl's feet who was in just as bad a condition as his. "Are you hurt anywhere else? Please tell me."

While Nannerl showed her her arm, Wolfgang was still thinking about what she had said. Magic. His mind promptly jumped to the previous evening; to their father creating a portal into another world, to him calling people miles away by exhaling a huge gust of air, to him taking off his 'glamour'. If Wolfgang's mental state wasn't in such a bad condition, he might have been excited about magic really existing. Would he be able to use it too?

He wasn't able to finish his line of thought, as the door jumped open with a loud crash against the wall and a man stepped into the room, panting.

"You called, Milady?" he pressed out through heavy breaths.

"Thank you for coming so quickly, Süßmayr. These two are Nannerl and Wolfgang, they've been hurt on their way here. Please take a look at them?"

The man sighed, probably exasperated at having speeded for thinking it'd be an emergency, before he too kneeled down in front of the them and took out a small, gilded circular magnifying glass that had no handle out of his pocket, the kind that people usually took for reading. He then put one of Wolfgang's feet into his lap and held the glass a few millimetres above the underside of his big toe, looking through it - maybe he was examining it on a closer basis?  
However, nothing of the sort was the case, for just a second later the glass began to glow, and Wolfgang could feel an uncomfortable tingling in his toe.

Nannerl, who was leaning forward and looking at Süßmayr's work, gasped."How is he doing that?" she asked, not taking her eyes off the healer who was now slowly moving the glass further along Wolfgang's sole.

"I just told you," Constanze grinned. "Magic."

Absentmindedly, his sister nodded. "And what does he need the magnifying glass for?"

"Most fae need a focus point for their magic. The guards always have have something physical that's big enough so that could also use it for non magical fighting, for example. Like a staff or cane."

"Physical? What could be a non-physical focus?" The friendly conversation seemed to have made Nannerl less wary, as her tone was quite chipper again.

"My sister Aloysia, for instance, uses her voice. She sings. But you can imagine that's not ideal in a real fight."

"And what do you use?"

"Take a guess." she stared at his sister with lifted eyebrows. Wolfgang felt like he and Süßmayr were third-wheeling.

"Hmm," Nannerl hummed playfully. "Your jewellery?"

Constanze looked down at her eye-catching body jewellery in mock surprise and gasped. "Yes! How'd you guess that?"  
Before they could go on, Süßmayr interrupted them by finishing with healing Wolfgang's feet and moving onto Nannerl's, clearing his throat so that Constanze would get out of the way.  
"So, what we are going to do after Süßmayr has looked you over is that we're going to find some clothing that you can borrow while a new wardrobe is being put together for you. I also took the freedom to order some books for you to read so that you can get a better understanding of our world, and you don't need to worry about payment for any of this, I put it on your father's tab. Also the clothing might be a bit loose on you since we didn't have your measurements, but since magic is a thing that exists that won't be a problem for long," Constanze explained what would happen next. "And after we have found something to put on you, we'll get breakfast. Okay?"  
The siblings nodded and after that they just chatted for a bit while the healer took care of Nannerl's feet and then her arm. Their new friend then dropped them off in a room that was packed with racks of clothing for them to choose from while she stole away to get a few bread rolls and some fruit for them to nibble on. While she was away, the both of them had some fun looking at the foreign articles of clothing, digging through the soft fabrics and jokingly holding up the occasional ugly garment. By the time Constanze came back, Wolfgang had already put on form-fitting black trousers and a long storm-grey tunic whose sides where cut upon up to his hipbones, whereas Nannerl had gone for the softest, blue long skirt she could find and a surprisingly sleeveless soft white wrapping-top.  
"Good choices!" Constanze greeted them when she came back and handed each of them some food so that they could eat.  
The room they went to after that was stuffed to the brim by all kinds of objects, stacked on top of each other in ancient slanting shelves, the boards nearly breaking under the weight put on them if they weren't being held up by the piles on the boards underneath. A big table stood in the middle of the room, no less messy, and at that table sat a man with dark brown hair and kohled black eyes.

"Lorenzo," Constanze greeted the man, not unkindly but not friendly either. "Where is Stephanie?"

"Good day to you, too. You could ask me for help too, you know."

"Would you give it to me?"

"No."

"There. Now where's Stephanie?" She hadn't yet stepped into room herself, still standing halfway in the doorway.

"Out, acquiring food for thought for us. And those two are?" He leaned back in his heavy chair, crossing his hands above his lap leisurely.

"Wolfgang and Nannerl, King Leopold's children. They want to commission magical instruments." Lorenzo's eyes widened in recognition, but before he could say anything else, Wolfgang butted in.

"Why won't he help us?" he said, the first proper sentence he had managed to press out since the evening before.

"Because he's unseelie. I'll explain later," was Constanze's only answer.

"No," Lorenzo negated in a monotonous voice. "I won't help your kind because of your prejudices. Nigh none of you see us as your equals, especially not us from the autumn court, and I refuse to offer my help because of that reason. Stephanie is an exception, and those two might be too since they didn't grow up here. I won't help _you,_ princess _,_ but them I will. Now what do you need, you two?"

Not sure whose side he should be on, Wolfgang answered. "Constanze said we'd come here to commission ... focus objects?"

"Yes, that was obvious, we are the city's royal magical manufacturers. Each and every magical instrument for higher blood and palace employees goes through our hands. What I meant is what you had in mind. You know, what would you like your instrument to look like?"

Wolfgang let his eyes wander through the room, in hopes of something catching his eyes, but there were so many objects that he couldn't focus on a single one.

"What does yours look like?" Nannerl asked the dark-haired man, seemingly just as lost as her brother. Lifting an eyebrow, the man picked up the intricate raven-feathered quill that lay on the table in front of him, holding it up by its silver grip.

"This helps me inscribe the strengthening runes. It fits my work and use of magic rather well, however, I fear that it will be most unwieldy for the majority of fae. You can still order a new instrument or make adjustments later, for now you should pick something that fits your personality, or reminds you of a hobby of yours."

As soon as he said that, Wolfgang was hit with the best idea. "I want a conducting stick," he blurted out, a smile having found its way onto his face for the first time in days. "I mean, I'd like one. If that's alright," he immediately added, flustered about having been so rude.

Lorenzo made an impressed face. "That's a first. And no need to be coy, princeling," he smirked and then looked at Nannerl, who was still considering her choice while looking at Constanze's body jewellery. After a few moments of pondering, she seemed to have come to an idea.

"Could I get one of these full-finger rings that look like claws?" This time, Lorenzo looked surprised as he nodded his affirmation, and she continued. "May I have a sheet of paper?"

She then spent a minute sketching out a rough design, and the three others watched in awe. Her idea included a scaled plating design with intricate flower encarvings, and a tip that looked like that of a dip pen.

"This is so cool, Nannerl," Wolfgang gushed.

"It is indeed a very original design," Lorenzo complimented her while Constanze just kept looking at the drawing, smiling. "I think I'm going to leave this one to Stephanie, though, as he enjoys crafting jewellery much more than I do and this design deserves a master's craft. What about you, princeling, any special wishes for your conducting stick?"

Wolfgang did indeed have a few ideas, but he was scared of how his father would react to him having an outlandish instrument. Jewellery was meant to be pretty, and canes meant to impose, but a conducting stick should be simple and merely a tool for greatness and beauty. So he shook his head no and tried not to regret it to much when they left the room again after bidding the manufacturer goodbye.

"We're going to have lunch now and after that I will bring you to where your father wants to meet up for your first lesson. I'll come get you to eat dinner after that and then bring you back to your room. I don't think that they'll lock it again this night, but please tell me if they do so that I can see what I can do about it. Would you like to know anything else?" Constanze explained as soon as they had left the work room behind them.

"Yes. That word you used before - what does it mean? And what is all this talk of courts about?" Wolfgang voiced the question that had been prodding at the back of his head ever since it had first come up.

"Ah, right," Constanze hummed. "Your father will probably tell you all about this later, and add in a lot more political jargon, but the people of the fae are basically divided into two groups: the seelie and the unseelie. A long time ago, our predecessors used to live together in peace under the care of our primordial mother. But one group, the unseelie, weren't agreeing with how our kingdom worked back then, with the way it was being ruled, so they cut themselves off from it and built their own kingdom. For aeons, war was waged between the two factions and our honourable allmother got tired of trying to convince her children to reconcile, so she ordered for the building we're in right now to be built so she could hold an unarmed tribunal, and knowing that the seelie and unseelie would neither unite again nor be peaceful if they stayed parted, she proposed a system of cohabitation and -ruling. Inspired by the seasons, she halved each of the fractions again and gave each quarter powers ... or rather talents befitting their new court. Thus the courts were created, with the seelie consisting of the summer and the spring court and the unseelie of the wintry and autumnal."

Wolfgang and his sister were practically hanging off her lips as she talked and he was almost disappointed when she finished.

"What kind of 'talents'?" Nannerl inquired.

"Hm ... All fae can work the same kind of magic - for example everyone could heal, but only the spring fae have got a natural predisposition for that. We are also prone to focusing on new life, creating and the likes. The summer court - the one you and your father belong to - focuses on sustainment and strong forces, and it's kind of the same for the winter court, with the exception of their magic being .. colder, I guess? The winter court like to isolate themselves the most, so I'm not familiar with their powers. The autumn court fae are ... gross, most of the time. They mostly focus on bringing death."

Something about her statement of the autumn court didn't sit quite right with him - Lorenzo hadn't seemed like he was a truly bad person in the short amount of time they had talked. Sure, he had been a bit cocky, but that was nothing to warrant ire from others. That, and what he had said about not being seen as equal didn't sit right with Wolfgang.

"I'd actually advise you to keep away from unseelie as much as possible, since they like to manipulate and trick people and since you're not familiar with our realm, you're easy targets. And .. take care not to leave the city without a guide, as our realm is small and it's easy to misstep into a bad place."

"What do you mean?" Nannerl sounded alarmed at Constanze's gloomy tone.

"Back when the courts were created, a small group of fae refused to accept the allmother's decision, and fearing another war, she punished them by creating the shadow court and banishing them there. No fae, whether seelie or not, dares go there voluntarily and those who have gotten lost and breached it never returned. Except – well."

By this point they had reached a dining hall with long long wooden tables that held platters upon platters of delicious looking food. Constanze led them towards one of the tables, to sit with two girls who she seemed to know.

"Josepha, Sophie," she greeted them. "Where is Aloysia?"

"Out with mother, singing to the flowers. Who are these two?" one of them answered and leaned forward to take a closer look at them. "My, those ears! You must be his majesty's children? Nice to meet you, I am Sophie."

The other girl also introduced herself, now also telling them that they were Constanze's sisters, and Wolfgang and Nannerl told them their own names.Their lunch went by without a hitch, the offered food being delicious yet foreign, and the time for their first lesson came. Constanze brought them to a small study, where their father was already waiting seated at a big wooden desk. Wolfgang had gotten used to the unusual garments and the fae's elongated ears during the day, but seeing his father look so strange still hit him in the face when they opened the door. It didn't help that he was now wearing a heavy burgundy tunic and pants, his form adorned by royal looking leathers, braces and a thick long cape.

"There you are." He greeted them. "Please sit down. Thank you for guiding them, Constanze, please come pick them up again in about six hours."

Constanze nodded, bowing, before she turned around and they were left alone with their father.

"Maria," he said. "I only need Wolfgang to stay here as my successor, you are welcome to stay but if you wish to leave, no one will stop you."

"Are you kidding me," she hissed, and leaned forward in an aggressive manner. "So, let me recount what happened. Our mother died and your first reaction wasn't to stay strong for your family, but to fuck off into a whole other realm, and only allowing us to stay after you have been denied your apparent kingship so that Wolfie can take over!"

He bristled at her rant. "Excuse me? This is my home which I've lived in for thousands of years, I only came to the human world so I'd be able to be with the love of my life but then your brother let her grow ill because he needed somebody to travel with him. The least he can do is help me get my old life back."

"The least YOU could do is be a decent father!" Nannerl screamed and abruptly stood up, storming out of the room and letting the door slam shut behind her.

All the new impressions from this world have completely made him forget about his mother, and hearing his remaining family mention her in an argument made him remember her so strongly that he felt like he had been overrun by a horse. And yes, he was still angry at his father for having wanted to abandon them, but he was right, wasn't he? Wolfgang was to blame for their mother's death, and if she hadn't died, they'd still be a happy family. Leopold had cared for his wife more than for anything else, and with her dead there was only his homeworld and his children left, and he chose what he had known for longer than Wolfgang could imagine. So, yes, the least he could do _was_ to do his best and revive his father's old life, as an apology to having pried his most important person away from him. Torn between his love for his sister and this guilt he felt for his father, Wolfgang stayed aseat, hoping to be told what to do. His father leaned back again, sighing heavily as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"Very well, then," he said. "I shall teach only you. What has Constanze told you so far?"

In a meek voice, Wolfgang recounted everything he had remembered from her stories, and when he finished, his father hummed in thought, probably considering where to start.

"There is a hierarchy between the courts. The summer and winter court stand as equals, while the spring court is submissive to us and the autumnal one to the winter court. She said that we're supposed to co-habitate and -rule. Do you understand what that means?"

Wolfgang shook his head no.

"That means that there's no territories, no borders. There might be areas where more winter fae live than anything else, but if any seelie wished to live there, there would be nothing stopping them. The co-ruling is a bit more intricate. From spring to autumn equinox, the summer court rules, and the other half of the year it's the winter fae's turn. However, on big decisions, the kings or queens are called together to give a vote. Our current situation is an example for it; two qualified fae are contending for the summer court throne and while it usually is the court's sole decision, in a situation like this the other courts function as judges."

"How can you be sure they won't choose the weaker king just so that they can overthrow us?"

"Ah, good question," his father smiled and Wolfgang felt proud. "The vote has to be unanimous, otherwise you and Hieronymous might have to go through some kind of trial to determine who comes out as the king. I don't know what exactly that would entail, as such a thing has never happened as long as I've lived, but our scholars will make sure the procedure will be held properly. Do you understand?"

Wolfgang nodded, leaning forwards.

"Good. Generally, there's always some kind of power struggle in the palace; however, the fae people are largely glad to be in times of peace. After all, a war between us who possess magic and live for way longer than other races would turn out ugly. Think the battle for Troy, just stretched for a few centuries. The only exception for this would be king Rosenberg, but he is is beneath the winter court so he has to listen to their orders. Which would be our next topic: the current kings and queens. You already know Hieronymous, who I've allowed to take over after my leave from this world. Constanze's mother, queen Cäcilia, is head of the spring court. The current seelie rulers and I typically stay inside the capital, even throughout the winter court's rule. Antonio, the king of the winter court, usually takes a leave of absence during our rule and only comes to the capital for votes. Since the autumn equinox is about two months away, he should probably arrive here sometime in the month before that. The king of the autumn court is called Rosenberg, and he likes to not even spend his time during the summer rule in this realm. Instead, he travels through the human world. I will arrange for a meeting between you and Cäcilia as soon as possible, and then between you and the unseelie once they are back inside the capital. Any questions so far?"

Wolfgang thought about it for a second, but shook his head, eager to learn more. His father nodded.

"Let's get into the more subtle politicking then …"

 

 

~*~

 

 

When Constanze collected him from the study later that evening, she looked rather grim. They didn't talk any on their way to the dining hall, where Nannerl was already sitting where they had sat at lunch time. She was staring at her food absentmindedly and didn't look up when they sat down; neither did Constanze spark conversation so Wolfgang just accepted that this would be a silent dinner. After, Constanze immediately brought them back to their room, where they both spent some time getting ready for bed and just reading. The time came that the sun had nearly disappeared and they were forced to go to bed, as there were no lamps in the room; Nannerl walked towards the bed they hadn't used the night before and Wolfgang felt disappointment and guilt for her being cross with him, thinking that she didn't want to sleep beside him anymore.

"Can you help me?" he heard her speak up for the first time since she had stormed out of the study. Confused, he looked up. "I'd like to push the beds together."

Like an overeager puppy, he jumped up from where he sat on one of the stools and hurried to help her with pushing the two single beds together, and then let himself fall into them, a big boulder lifted from his worried heart. Nannerl mirrored him and pulled him into a hug.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm just ... really angry at father, and back then I was angry about you not feeling the same. But it's fine, I know you don't see him the same as me. Just - please be careful, yes Wolfie? Don't let him use you." Relieved, he hugged her back and nodded.

"Thank you." She smiled. "Now, tell me everything you've learned today. I refuse to be taught by father, but you can be my teacher."

And he did, spending ages recounting everything like the most exciting story he had ever read.The next morning, Constanze picked them up for breakfast again and then led them back to the work room of Lorenzo and this 'Stephanie' they hadn't yet met.

"But we just commissioned them yesterday?" Wolfgang asked, confused about how they were already going back. Constanze smiled.

"Yes, but you underestimate their skill and overestimate how many commissions they've got," she put on a friendly expression as to not accidentally upset him. "Most civilians can't afford them and everybody else already has a magical instrument, so they only commission them when they need a replacement or feel like they want to throw out money for another one. Stephanie's and Lorenzo's work room is only so stuffed because they've got enough time to just make these things as ... a hobby. I think they've got another storage room somewhere in the palace, and they even took on side jobs as court scribes to ward off boredom." Understanding, Wolfgang and Nannerl nodded and halted in front of the door they now recognised, waiting for Constanze to knock. A low acknowledgement could be heard from inside the room, so they opened the door and stepped inside. The room looked the same as it had the day before, it just contained a second man. Lorenzo and who Wolfgang assumed to be Stephanie sat on two chairs, facing each other and leaning over something Lorenzo held in his hands. When they stepped closer, Wolfgang could see that it was Nannerl's claw ring.  
"Wow," she sighed softly. "I can't believe you managed to create something so beautiful in under a day!"  
Lorenzo sat more upright in his chair, smirking in preparation to boast. "Of course!" he proclaimed. "Our dear Stephanie here is the best at inanimate creational magic!"  
Then, he held out the ring for Nannerl to take while Stephanie nodded at them in greeting, blushing. Nannerl, Constanze and Wolfgang looked at the ring in awe as Lorenzo rummaged around for something else. After a few minutes of searching, he came upon an oblong box, from which he procured Wolfgang's conducting stick. And - it was beautiful. Not having given any instructions, Wolfgang had expected them to create a normal one, the kind he was used to from their own world, but this one had a beautifully carved golden handle while the stick itself was pure white and iridescent when the light hit it just right.

Planning to admire even more, Wolfgang held it like he would a normal conducting stick and pointed it upwards.  
"Wait, no-" Lorenzo shouted, but it was already too late. A burst of what looked like golden glass dust had erupted from Wolfgang's instrument and now slowly begun drifting towards the floor.  
Stephanie began to laugh loudly while Lorenzo put his head into his hands.

"You're so lucky your magic doesn't naturally tend towards fire or something equally as destructing." Then, he looked up and pointed at Nannerl. "You, don't put it on inside until you know how to control it. And you, princeling, be careful with that and keep it in your pocket or something until you can handle your magic. Now get out of here before you blow anything up."  
Struggling to keep their sheepish smiles concealed, the trio quickly shuffled out of the room and then into the palace' park for the first time since they had arrived. Constanze walked straight towards an unoccupied patch of grass and then did a 180 degree turn to stand before them and smile.  
"Okay, so," she began. "This might be a bit more difficult for the two of you, since you haven't grown up around magic and don't know what it feels like yet, but close your eyes and focus on your core. Actually, no, this might be easier for you since you should feel something in there that you have never felt before. Just - I don't know, just keep trying and we'll see whether it's easy or not."  
Fortunately, it actually was quite easy for Wolfgang to detect what she meant once he concentrated on it. It felt like ... warmth? Like a tiny supernova burning on inside his stomach.  
"Hmm," Nannerl hummed, "It feels like I've got butterflies in my stomach!"  
"Really?" Constanze laughed. "What about you, Wolfie?"  
"Like I've swallowed the sun. What does it feel like for you?" He grinned brightly, clutching his stomach.  
"I've never actually thought about it. I'd say ... maybe a stream? I can feel my magic being calm when I am content, but whenever I am angry it rages like wild water."  
That really was amazing, Wolfgang thought, but what it be like when he was angry? It was already almost too much right this second, when he was calm and happy, but would it truly burn him if he became furious? He didn't long to find out.  
"Now take out your magical instruments," Constanze distracted him again. "And think about how you think they should move. Which motions seem natural? If it were a pen, you would use it as if you were writing in the air; since you've got a conducting stick the natural movement should be really obvious to you, Wolfgang. And Nannerl, maybe put yours on and just get a feeling for it?"  
The siblings nodded and Wolfgang waited for his sister to put hers on and move her pointer finger around a bit, until a few small seeds sprouted from the tip of her claw and fell to the floor without much fanfare.  
"Well," Constanze said in a deadpan voice, "At least-" but she got interrupted by having to take a step back, as suddenly a tree began to grow right between them until it reached well above their heads.  
"I'll be damned," she shouted and walked around the tree to rejoin them. "That was amazing! Now, both think about something you'd like to do with your magic, visualise it and then try to mold your magic into that while using your instrument."  
Wolfgang had to think about it for a bit, but eventually he got an idea. Nannerl had already begun on hers, walking around her tree while letting her finger dance in the air, slowly letting vines and epiphytes grow around it.  
Thinking about what he could do, Wolfgang finally got an idea and immediately began working on it; led by the subtle swaying of his conducting stick, a small moat plastered with stones dug itself in a wide arch around Nannerl's tree, and, remembering the pretty fountains he had seen in front of various castles he had visited, he let water flow and then sprout high into the air in pretty formations. But they weren't grand yet, so he adjusted the movements of his stick into a higher tempo, and to his satisfaction, they grew in size and patterns. Seeing that Nannerl was finished and not wanting to let them wait any longer, he added a little bridge so that they could get out of their little self-created area without having to jump over the moat, and then pocketed his focus object again.

"I'm not sure if the groundsmen will be happy with your little addition to the the courtyard, but if they aren't then I'm going to magick their trousers off because this is amazing! I can't believe this is your first time using magic, you two are so talented; I wonder if that comes from yourselves or from the sacred blood that flows through your veins ... But anyway, shall I show you some more tricks before I take you to lunch and then Wolfgang to your father's lesson?"  
They did exactly that and when the time for his lesson to begin rolled around, Wolfgang was practically shaking in anticipation. While the previous day's lesson about politics had been interesting, today he would learn about magic for the first time. And instead of meeting up in that little study again, Constanze had led him to a large room in the dungaeons of the palace that looked like a small arena, with a dusty battling area in the middle and stands in the ring around it. Despite being underground, the room was flooded with light that came from a plethora of magical plates on the ceiling.When they arrived his father was already waiting for him and Constanze quickly left them alone.

"Son," he greeted Wolfgang. "May I see what kind of magical instrument you chose?"

Suddenly nervous, Wolfgang took his conducting stick out of his pocket and walked up to his father, holding it out to him. Grimacing, his father took it from him and rolled it around in his fingers to take a closer look at it.

"Good choice of object, it fits you well," he finally said. "But the … design leaves little to be desired."

 _But I like it_ , was what Wolfgang thought.  
"I didn't choose it myself," is what he said.

"... very well, then. I am sure you can put a glamour on it or let Stephanie change it for you if you so wish." It didn't sound like a suggestion, but more like an order. Wolfgang didn't plan to heed it.

"That would also bring us to the first topic of today's lesson – the different kinds of magic."  
And just like that, Wolfgang was eager again.

"First is the Glamour Magic. This type comes natural to all fae, so you shouldn't have any problems with it. Glamour Magic is the disguising of forms. You could make a spoon look like it's made from pure silver instead of wood, or make yourself look like an old woman. Whatever your heart desires is possible, but the difficulty is in imagining it clearly. If you don't, the glamour would take on the simplest form – in the case of the old woman, you'd only look like you had brests, wrinkles, and longer white hair. But you could still be recognisable. But what is good about Glamour Magic is that once you've cast it, it takes no more concentration. So you could make a cat look like a dog, leave it, and when you come back a year later it'd still look like that. Would you like to try it out? Maybe just change something inanimate for the beginning, lest you accidentally magick somebody's eyes out."

Wolfgang smiled and, looking around, chose the door he had come through. It was big and metallic, but after a flick of his conducting stick, it looked like it was made out of simple wood. His father hummed.

"Good job, for the beginning. Now, what other kinds of magic are there … There's Elemental Magic, Healing Magic, both inanimate and animate Creational Magic, and some others, but those are the basic ones. Today, we are only going to try out Elemental Magic since that comes natural to us summer fae. So-"  
"Father," Wolfgang interrupted him. "May I ask you a question first?"  
"Of course?"  
"Why do my sister and I suddenly have pointy ears? Did you put a glamour on us in the human world?"

"Ah, that's a good question that I would've touched on sometime else. No, I did not put a glamour on you. The thing is – in the human world, magic is not a natural occurrence. That means that magical beings like us fae don't have it as easy casting it, which was also the reason why I waited until twilight before creating the portal, because portals take a lot of energy and around midnight, the fae and human realms are closest to each other so I didn't need as much magic as I would've had otherwise. Now, since you and your sister are my children, you've got magic in your blood too, and – this is just a theory, not science – because magic isn't present much in the human world, the fae part in you lay dormant. And as soon as you stepped into my portal, as soon as you touched real magic for the first time, the fae in you woke up and you took on the half-blood looks you should've had from the beginning. That is probably also the reason you didn't use accidental magic when you were children."

The explanation reasonable, so Wolfgang contented himself with that.

"Okay, let's go on to elemental magic now. I will go into the stands so that you've got enough room to practice. While I do that, I'd like you to try and create a levitating ball of water. The size doesn't matter for now."

Wolfgang did it with ease, even before his father had sat down a few metres away, and felt proud of himself, but much to his disappointment, his father didn't praise him.

"Now let the ball orbit you and try to slowly increase the distance from you."  
Letting the sphere circle around him was easy – he simply beat his stick in the movements for a 2/4 time signature and spun around – but getting down the right movement to increase the distance prove to be more difficult. Still, he figured it out after a few moments and stopped in his spinning to look to his father for further instructions.

"Try to let it orbit, without you spinning with it. Once you've got that down, try to increase the speed."

Feeling silly for even having done that, Wolfgang tried to add a circling motion to the slow beat of his stick and, lo and behold, it worked. And regarding the speed … that was ridiculously easy; he just had to increase the time signature of his conducting movements.

So he looked towards his father again, this time without letting the sphere halt in its movements, and wished for words of praise or at least pride in his eyes, but there was none.

"Good, now let's continue …," was all he said.

 

 

~*~

 

  
They spent days like that, spending time with Constanze and exploring the city, taking lessons and then sharing them with each other at night, and those days turned into weeks, until suddenly something about the atmosphere in the palace was different. The amount of unseelie in the palace - who Wolfgang had learnt to recognise by their dark hair and standoffish attitudes after a few days - had suddenly doubled, and their usually reserved or arrogant demeanours had lifted and made them skittish.  
Instead of bringing them straight to breakfast that day, Constanze led them into the park and told them to sit down on of the benches that stood a bit secluded from the main road leading towards the palace.  
"King Antonio is supposed to arrive this morning. I usually wouldn't care, but I thought you might want to know who he is before you accidentally offend him in the hallway or something," she explained.

"Thanks, I guess," Wolfgang slurred, still tired from not having gotten enough sleep after the previous evening's gruesome training. After a few minutes of nothing else happening, he simply closed and leaned back while listening to Nannerl and Constanze chatting.

"What's this King Antonio like?" his sister asked. "Is he so easily offended that you worry for us?"

"Hmm, not really," the other girl answered and stretched her feet out before her. "He is pretty calm, I guess, but I'm still a bit scared of him?"

"What, why?"

"He's only a millennium or so older than me, but crazy much stronger. I mean, of course - he's got pure sacred blood and all that - but there's also some rumours. I was still very young back then so I don't know much, but …"

"But? Come on Constanze, don't leave us hanging!"

Now, the spring fae leaned a bit further towards them and continued talking in a whisper. "There's a type of magic called shadow magic. Everyone is capable of doing it if they practice, but not strongly - the only fae who are experts at it are those from the shadow court, you know, the ones nightmares are made of. And then there's Antonio, he's the only living fae in our kingdom that's capable of using shadow magic well. They say he has wandered into the Night forest as a child, either too daring or foolish to care, and ended up in the shadow court. They say his heart has been eaten by the shadow fae and that they replaced it with their dark magic and allowed him to come back to us as a warning. That's why he's so crazy good at it and why his personality is so ... blank."

Sometime during her story, Wolfgang had opened his eyes and leaned forwards again, woken up by the interesting gossip.  
"Why did they allow him to become king, then?"

"He's got sacred blood, so he had as much a right to the throne as his relatives. And he is crazy strong and good at politics and ruling. He actually hadn't been considered a good candidate at first, but then there was some tension amongst the autumn court and - do you know what shadow magic does? It swallows other magic. He swallowed the magic of rebels that endangered our peace, which practically made them powerless. Losing your magic is ... scary. I'm scared of him."  
The siblings looked at her in terror. "Is he even allowed to that?" Nannerl asked.  
"I mean ... he's king, for one thing. And one thing I'll have to admit: he has a strong grip on our peace. And our peace stands on wobbly legs, so even the smallest riot could be fatal. Endangering our peace is one of the most grave crimes, and there's no better way to nip riots in the bud than making the rioters powerless."  
"That seems pretty backwards to me," Wolfgang mumbled. Constanze shrugged.  
"Oh hey, I think that's him," she suddenly spoke up after they had sat in silence for a little while. Curious, the siblings leaned forwards to get a better look.

King Antonio was nothing like Wolfgang had imagined him to be like. Wolfgang had met three rulers so far: his own father, king Hieronymous and queen Cäcilia, and they looked just as old as the apparent millennia of age they had on their shoulders. He had expected another old, strict geezer. But this guy was .. young. Or at least he looked that way, him being a fae probably meant that he had a few thousand years on Wolfgang. He still didn't get how fae aging worked.  
But what stumped him most was ... how attractive the other man was? Yes, Wolfgang was no stranger to feeling attraction, but the foreign features of the fae had set him off so far. But it didn't bother him that king Antonio had elongated ears, nor did his clothing look all too weird to him as it rather resembled dark medieval nobleclothing with a heavy fur cape thrown around his shoulders, despite the still rather warm summer days. His first impression and what Constanze had told them about the winter court king clashed so terribly that Wolfgang couldn't help but lower his eyes in conflict until the other man had crossed the park and disappeared inside the palace.  
"Everything alright, Wolfie?" Nannerl asked and soothingly touched his arm. He nodded and they went back to their usual schedule.

 

It wasn't until a few days later that it happened. Wolfgang's day had been rough again, his father pushing him to the limit, verbally debasing him everytime his son couldn't quite manage the way he wanted him to twist his magic, or tapping Wolfgang's body with his cane until it hurt when he couldn't remember the answer for a question. He didn't want to bother his sister with it, who had seemed more and more happy over the last weeks, and so he snuck out onto one of the many balconies whenever he felt restless at night.

"Ah, you're here," an unfamiliar voice spoke up from behind him. Startled, he turned around. King Antonio stood before him, dressed in simple black tunics and trousers, his hair let down, but not looking any less royal than he had on the day of his arrival."You're Leopold's spawn, yes? The one who wants to take over from Hieronymous?"

Wolfgang nodded.

"What's your name?"

"W-Wolfgang," he answered, finding himself way too nervous talking to the king, whom he was expected to rule together with. Antonio narrowed his eyes.

"Wolfgang," he said, still deadpan, but it felt threatening to him. "I don't care whether you become king or not, but know your place. Just as a fair warning."  
Then, the man turned around again and disappeared inside the palace, and remembering what Constanze had told him about the king's magic, Wolfgang nearly shat his pants.  
  


 

~*~

 

  
It had been a week since king Antonio's arrival when they happened upon each other for the second time. Or, rather, when Antonio sought him out for the second time. It was early in the morning, the days surely becoming shorter and colder, and therefor dawn had only just breached the horizon and begun warming up the chilly air. Wolfgang was outside, in a part of the courtyard that was floored with stone and bare of any vegetation, and practised the fire exercise his father had shown him the day before. It was meant to both improve his concentration and multitasking as well as his conception of magical mass, by having him juggle multiple balls of fire with his conducting stick, making them weigh less the higher up they went and then adding mass on their way down. At first he had tried with just one ball, and once he had gotten the hang of it, it was even great fun. Giving and taking mass gave the fire ball exhilarating acceleration, and a nice momentum when he caught it with his stick at the bottom of the curve to throw it upwards again. He had only gotten up to two balls of fire the day before, mainly because he had trouble figuring it out with just one in the first place, but right now he was throwing around, believe it or not, four of them! He would be adding a fifth soon, once juggling four came with more ease.

"Wolfgang," a voice suddenly rang out behind him and he startled so much that he couldn't avert losing his grip on magic. Before he knew it, he had been grabbed by the shoulder and pulled back, half pressed against who he could now recognise as king Antonio, and looked on as the winter fae reached out with his other hand, black tendrils of shadow dancing around it as they swallowed the four spheres of flames that would've otherwise either singed the floor or one of them. Once the fourth sphere had been consumed, Antonio inhaled deeply, and when he opened his eyes again and looked at Wolfgang, he could see that the black haired man was flushed. They simply looked at each other for a few seconds, still partly embracing each other, and now that he actually had time to think, Wolfgang couldn't help but notice the man's scent. It probably sounded clichéd, but the winter fae actually smelled like the cold. He reminded him of the first frost, pine needles, warm evenings in front of the fireplace ... Wolfgang had always preferred lovely summer days, but in that exact moment he longed for the still comfort of winter.

"My- my excuses," Antonio apologised, his voice sounding much airier than when they had first talked, or than when he called out his name just a moment before. "I have seen you practice and .. I should've known suddenly speaking to you would be a bad idea, I'm sorry. But your, your magic - it is marvellous."

This sounded nothing like the man Wolfgang had talked to a few days ago, and if anything, he sounded outright elated right now.

"...Thank you?" Wolfgang said, unsure about how he should act in this situation. While he did maybe have a slight crush on the man, he was still scared of him and of the magic he had just seen him perform right in front of his eyes. Antonio's eyes widened and he abruptly let go of Wolfgang, his blush growing even brighter. Without another word, he turned around on his heels and stormed away, leaving Wolfgang alone again.

 

Another week went by, at the beginning of which the king of the autumn court, Rosenberg, arrived in the capital and it was arranged for him to officially meet the two unseelie kings. It was a short affair, with the three of them exchanging only the most necessary of pleasantries, but Wolfgang couldn't help but feel that King Antonio was avoiding him. That, however, was drowned out by his dislike for Rosenberg.

"He's such an asshole!" he later complained to Constanze and Nannerl, who looked rather amused. "He talks to me as if I'm a child, he mocks everything I say and he smells of goddamn _decay_."At this, Nannerl snorted.

"Many autumn fae do, to be honest," Constanze whispered. The both of them were cuddled up in Wolfgang's and Nannerl's pushed-together beds, having grown closer over the past few weeks. Wolfgang almost suspected for something to be going on between the two, but he knew that Nannerl would definitely tell him if that were the case. He actually didn't stop complaining about the autumn fae for the rest of the day.

As the week passed, Wolfgang started feeling doubt, and guilt. The more he thought about Antonio, the more he questioned what he had started to believe. His father, and Constanze too, to some degree, had painted his view of this world so clearly black and white, but then he began to look between the lines and noticed shades of grey.Yes, the concept of shadow magic sounded scary to him, but so did the guns from his old world. At the end of the day, it wasn't the means that was scary, but the wielder; and Antonio hadn't seemed as bad as he had been described. After all, which cruel man would speak to him so softly? So he began looking for the winter fae whenever he had free time, but it seemed as if he had been swallowed by the earth. So when he found him inside one of the palace' court rooms one evening by the end of the week, he felt happy, which very quickly turned into apprehension, though. It looked as if they were holding a trial for the autumn fae that stood in the middle of the room. It seemed like Wolfgang had stepped into it just as the penalty was being read out, so he had come just in time to see Antonio stand up and walk towards the convict, who was struggling and being held down by some guards, with heavy steps. Not gently at all, he grabbed the man by the jaw and called his shadow magic to his hand, giving everyone a view of the smoky tendrils finding their way into the convict's abdomen through his throat and pulling his magic out, before it died out when it hit his hand.Exhausted, the culprit slumped in his chair and Antonio simply let him fall, before quickly striding out of the room without another word, looking rather pale. Of course, Wolfgang hurried to follow after him. The king was walking much faster than him, but by the time Wolfgang fully lost sight of him he had fortunately already figured out where he could be heading. And, indeed, he came upon Antonio on the same balcony they had first talked to each other on, leaning over the balustrade, looking rather worse for wear. Suddenly uncertain whether he'd be welcomed, Wolfgang carefully stepped outside and stood beside him.

"What do you want?" Antonio croaked, sounding just as bad as his condition appeared to be.

"Are you okay?" Wolfgang asked, his concern not being an act, and Antonio laughed as an answer.

"You should ask that question to the convict, I just stole something elemental from him." His whispering seemed unusual, but what alarmed Wolfgang even more was the way he leaned further forwards, as if he would vomit any second. The king grimaced and audibly gasped, and that was it for Wolfgang - he laid a comforting hand on the other man's back.

"You punished somebody who knew what his actions would bring and still committed them," he insured him. "Now please, tell me what's the matter."

Inhaling shakily, Antonio rightened himself from his bended over position, although still leaning on the balustrade, just looking at the blond in hesitation.

"You can trust me," he assured again. "There's nothing farther from my mind than upsetting you or the balance in this beautiful realm I only discovered it nearly two months ago."

The winter fae kept staring at him for a few more moments, before he gave in and sighed.

"I don't know how familiar you are with shadow magic," he began, "but it's not only the shadows that consume other magic, the wielder does, too. And when you consume something ... you get a taste of it. Usually, when somebody uses a certain kind of magic a lot, their pure magic and body begins to taste - smell, whichever - like that kind of magic. A healer would remind you of balm, for example, and our magical instrument manufacturers of metals, wood, ink. That convict tasted of death. He used to play reaper in the human world and took a liking to it; and when Rosenberg restationed him to our realm he simply started to ... murder your people, which is why he was put on a trial. That's why I'm feeling sick, I have got death in my mouth and in my stomach and there's nothing I can do but digest it."

"If it is so bad for you, why doesn't the court use other punishments?" Wolfgang was now rubbing his back.

"Because it is effective. And they don't know that ... it affects me like this." Suddenly, Antonio's head whipped around to him, still pale as the moon but at least a bit less nauseous looking.

"That is also the reason I behaved so - so strangely, out of place, in that courtyard a week ago. I got a taste of your magic and it is nothing but sublime. It - it was like a drug, I was out of my mind, and I'm terribly sorry for my behaviour back then, that was not becoming of a king."  
Suddenly understanding the man a lot more, Wolfgang nodded, smiling, and didn't stop patting his back. "It is alright, no offense taken."  
But Antonio simply hummed, dismissing his reassurance as if he didn't think of himself as worth it. "That is also why shadow magic is dangerous," he changed the topic. "Once a wrong person using it gets a taste of good magic, they will want more. It's not just like eating a piece of cake and desiring another, magic is a whole different story; it's exhilarating, nothing like you've ever experienced before, and it takes a lot of self-control to keep yourself from craving it."

"You seem to have a lot of self-control."

"I'm good at denying myself things, yes." At this, Antonio even lifted the corner of his mouth into a small smile, and Wolfgang felt a pang in his chest. Then, all of a sudden, he got an idea and didn't even waste a second thinking it through. In just a blink, he had grabbed his conducting stick and conjured up a shining bright sphere of light, startling Antonio in the process.

"You said you liked my magic, yes?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "Then eat this, it might make you feel better!"

"It's not 'eating', Wolfgang-"

"Then consume it," Wolfgang dragged out the word funnily. "Slurp it like a drink for all I care, but please try it out! For me?" And then he let the sphere drop into the kings hands, who abruptly burst out laughing while Wolfgang looked on, now blushing himself.

"You realise how ironic this is, yes?" he asked in a humorous tone that Wolfgang hadn't heard from him before. "Out of all he magic out there, you give me a ball of light to consume with my shadow magic. Bravo, Wolfgang." Then, he quickly sobered up. "You know, the majority of people are mistaking shadows for darkness. Without light, there'd be no shadows. Why does everyone think we'd want to consume all the light then?"

"Gosh, Antonio," Wolfgang countered, "you can wax poetic after you feel better, but please just do what I asked of you now. I promise you I'm not having any prejudiced thoughts."

At this, the man just looked at him, deadpan, for a few seconds, before he did something with his magic that turned the sphere in his hands into what looked like liquid light - and wasn't that cool - and brought his hands to his mouth to drink Wolfgang's magic like water. Wolfgang could practically see how the life came back into Antonio's form. Granted, he was still as pale as always, but at least he didn't look like a dead body anymore, and ... oh. That lovely flush was also back. Once Antonio had finished, he simply stared at his empty hands for a few seconds before he looked up again and gifted Wolfgang with a soft smile.

"Thank you," he breathed. "That really did help."

 

They had sadly parted ways after that, each of them having their own duties to fulfil, but in the following days Wolfgang couldn't help but notice that the winter court king wasn't ignoring him anymore, and that the two of them seemed to gravitate towards one another. On most days, they found each other chatting for a bit whenever they crossed ways, but since they always had places to be, they could never hold a proper conversation again. Until, one day when Wolfgang was incredibly exhausted from his training, Antonio - dressed in sturdy clothing and the same fur cape he had worn when Wolfgang had first seen him - intercepted him in front of the dining hall he had been aiming for to eat dinner and dragged him out into the courtyard. It was quite late, the lesson having dragged on for so long that twilight had already taken over the sky and Wolfgang had expected to eat alone.

"What?" Wolfgang asked, perplexed. "Antonio, where are we going?"

"Have you ever been outside the capital?" the king asked in a, dare he think it, excited voice; and what surprised him even more was that the winter fae even grabbed for Wolfgang's hand.

"No. I mean - yes, when we first arrived, but I didn't concentrate much on my surroundings back then." All he could remember was that day's twilight, so similar to the one they experienced right now, but having been linked to so many negative emotions.

"Good, because we're going on a nighttrip to one of my favourite places. If- if that's alright for you, of course."  
"It most definitely is! But won't we take too long, leaving the capital? Will we come back so that we'll still have enough time to rest before morning rises?" Smiling, Wolfgang squeezed Antonio's hand, now noticing that he held a basket in his other one.

"You're overestimating the size of our kingdom and forgetting about magic, Wolfgang. Here, this place should suffice. Stand still."

They were standing on one of the courtyard's many patches of grass, and Antonio let his basket fall to the ground so that he could grab something from the inside of a pocket. It was a bejewelled knife.

"Is that a magical instrument?" Wolfgang asked, surprised.

"Of course. Did you think I had none?" His eyes twinkled in mirth. "I just prefer not using it with my shadow magic, because it actually feels like I've got more control over it without it."

"But ... why a knife?"

"Oh, I've actually got several magical instruments," he admitted. "I feel like some instruments are better for certain magic than others, so I choose the one I want to use thinking about that. I chose the knife today because I thought it might come in handy where we are going to go in just a minute."

Understanding, Wolfgang nodded and then watched as Antonio turned around to him, crouched down and rammed the knife into the ground between them. A thin sheen of ice erupted from his knife and travelled outwards until the both of them stood on a circular patch of it, big enough to also hold the basket, until Wolfgang could watch as blue, frosted over, mushrooms sprouted at its edge. And then he suddenly felt this nauseating sensation of being transported again, just as he had on that day they first came to this realm, only it wasn't really just like it, he didn't feel like he was being pushed through a keyhole but rather like Antonio unlocked the door and led him through it. He still had a queasy feeling by the end of it, but at least he wasn't vomiting.

"Are you alright?" Antonio's soft voice reached his ears. "You look quite pale."

"Yes, I'm just ... not used to travelling like this yet. Don't worry, I'll feel better in a second. Now where are we?" They were obviously in a forest, but Antonio had said that this was one of his favourite places so it must've been something special. The other man looked around a bit before deciding on a direction, picking up his basket and causing them both to begin walking before answering.

"We're in the Night forest," he said, and the blood in Wolfgang's veins froze. Abruptly he came to a halt."Wolfgang, what's wrong?" Antonio turned around to him and saw his ghastly face."Oh, has somebody told you that horror story about me playing around in here and getting lost in the shadow realm?" He sighed. "Do you really think my heart has been eaten, Wolfgang?"

Dumbfounded, he nodded.

"While it is true that the shadow court overlaps some areas of the Night forest, most of it still belongs to our kingdom. Most people just avoid it because it is so close to it and they fear getting lost; but you don't have to worry, I know my way around here. Besides, the clearing I wanted to take you to is just over there."

Relieved by hearing Antonio's reassurances, Wolfgang bravely took his hand again and started walking towards the direction Antonio had indicated.

And when he stepped into the clearing Antonio must've meant, his breath caught. It was beautiful. The glade wasn't that big, but thankfully big enough to not feel cramped for two people, and the trees around it were surrounded by beautiful bright flora that shined in the last beams of the dying sun.While Wolfgang admired the place, Antonio had gone towards the middle of the clearing and laid out his heavy fur coat for them to sit on, and opened the basket to spread out their dinner. Once the blond could manage to take his eyes off the area, he put them on Antonio again, and then on the food he had brought, before he walked towards him and they sat down together.

"This is amazing," Wolfgang gushed.

"Wait a bit until night falls, in daylight this is just a normal forest," Antonio smiled sheepishly and gave Wolfgang his first bowl of food.

"You call this normal?" he replied and mentioned towards the various plants that reflected the sunlight like mirrors, before he tried some of the foreign puree and promptly grimaced.

"Ah, is this too bitter for you? I'm sorry, I don't have much of a sweet tooth and prefer the unsweetened version of this. Let me just -" While he apologised, the winter fae had stood up and walked towards one of the many large mushrooms in the clearing to cut it off with his knife. Then he sat down beside Wolfgang again to show it to him."This is a Sachercap. The stem is quite disgusting, if edible, when raw, but if you know how to cook it, it can be delicious. The meat of the cap is poisonous, so be careful with that. As for the pollen inside the gills-" And then he shook the mushroom above Wolfgang's soup, so that its pollen rained down upon it. "Try it now."Not distrusting the winter fae one bit, Wolfgang ate another spoonful and promptly moaned.

"That is so good," he exclaimed. "It tastes like syrup!"

Happy with himself, Antonio also began to eat and like that they spend a while, having their meal and chatting while day turned to night. When the last beams of the sun reached them, Wolfgang already wanted to suggest magicking up lights, but Antonio already seemed to know what he'd want to ask and shushed him, pointing towards the flora. For a few awkward moments of silence, nothing happened. But then, without any preamble, all the mushrooms, lichens and flowers that had reflected the sunlight before began to shine on their own. Their light was so strong that he had no problems seeing anything, and when he looked out into the forest he could see dozens upon dozens more of these illuminating the night.

"I think if we were to look at the forest from above it would look like its own starry night," Antonio whispered and when Wolfgang looked back at him, he saw that the other man wasn't looking around like he was, but rather looking right at him. "Like a mirror to the sky. Look up."

And Wolfgang did.

High above them, there was a hole in the tall treetops, through which they could see the inky black night sky and it's mesmerising map of stars.

"Wow," Wolfgang breathed. "This is so beautiful..."

"Shall I make it even more beautiful?" Antonio asked and questioningly, Wolfgang looked at him. Smiling softly, the black haired man gathered some of the colourful little flowers around them and picked some grass, rubbing everything inside his hands until it looked like a very colourful paste. Then, he cupped his hands in front of his mouth as if he wanted to warm them up by breathing on them, an blew through them. Entranced, Wolfgang looked on as Antonio's magic travelled through his hands, picked up the paste and created a colourful wind that travelled high up into the sky. He didn't know what was supposed to happen at first, but once the wind hit the sky's ceiling, he had to gasp.

"Aurora Borealis," Antonio explained. "My gift to the world's areas that bring the deepest winters."

"Wait, are you telling me you're making these on earth too? But my father said magic doesn't come in easily in my home realm."

"Yes I do," Antonio smiled sheepishly. "And it doesn't, I usually bring colourful plants from our world with me as an aid. I could do it without them here in our realm, but I feel like nature's colours are much prettier than my imaginings."

"You are amazing, Antonio," Wolfgang whispered and looked up again in awe. After a while of watching this strange spectacle in silence, he looked towards Antonio again and noticed that the man had been staring at him the whole time.

"Antonio, wha-"

"May I kiss you?"

The sudden question upended Wolfgang's entire world, letting him forget completely about their beautiful surroundings, or any doubts he might have. Dumbly, he nodded.

It was nothing like the youthful kisses he usually shared with girls and boys alike, nor like the timid pecks he had seen his parents give each other. Instead, Antonio gently but assuredly cradled his face between his hands and pressed their lips together firm, but calmly. After just a second, their lips began moving against each other and Wolfgang whimpered, grabbing at one of Antonio's wrists with one hand and at his coat with the other in an attempt to ground himself, and retaliated by cheekily pressing the tip of his tongue against Antonio's lips. He succeeded in sparking a reaction from the other man - namely, a really hot growl - but it also caused him to break the kiss off.

They were both breathing heavily, not having let go of each other, and Wolfgang might even have been pouting a little. And as they looked each other into the eyes, doubts came crashing into him.

"Antonio-" he panted. "But ... but you're a king."

Said king's flushed face took on an incredulous expression. "If you think long and hard about it, I think you'll figure out why that statement was stupid yourself," he jested and, god, his slightly husky voice would be the death of him.

"Yes but - how much older than me are you? I must look like a child to you!"

"You are an adult in human terms, are you not? And now you'll continue aging like a normal fae, so it doesn't matter much. Besides, I rather adore how childish you can be sometimes," he assured him and when he saw that Wolfgang was just about to say something else, he interrupted him before he could do so. "Now stop looking for reasons for us to not be together. They only viable reason would be for you to not be attracted to me. Are-" He gulped. "Are you not attracted to me? Do you not want this?"

"No, I do!" Wolfgang scrambled to soothe the king's sudden nervousness. "I just don't understand why … why me?"

Antonio hummed. "I know you haven't been in this world for long, but you have picked up on the tensions between the different kinds of fae for sure. And unseelie like me would be discriminated from one of yours, but I don't just get ignored or scoffed at like the rest of my people, I get feared because of my powers. And not just from seelie, my _own people_ avoid me if they can. And there is nothing worse than going through the streets of the kingdom you love more than anything else and seeing mothers hide their children, the future of this kingdom, from you. I don't have anything in these lands who cares for me anymore, and you were the first person who showed kindness to me in centuries. At first I only flocked to you in hopes of not being alone anymore, but … but I may have fallen for you."

Moved by what he said and wishing to soothe Antonio, Wolfgang surged forwards to lay his arms around the king's neck neck and to kiss him again, clumsily smushing their noses together in the progress. Like that, they sat there for a while, kissing and finding solace in each other, until Wolfgang began to shiver in the cool night air. Noticing that, Antonio broke the kiss off and hurried to give Wolfgang his own coat.

"Won't you be cold yourself?" Wolfgang asked but still accepted the coat gratefully.

"I'm literally a winter fae, I can take a little cold," Antonio smiled. "Still, let's start heading back, it's becoming rather cold."Agreeing, Wolfgang helped him pack everything together and, holding hands, they made their way back to Antonio's portal.

"Wolfgang?" Antonio suddenly asked.

"Hm?"

"The autumn equinox is coming nearer and the vote for kingship will be the day before," he explained. "I will order Rosenberg to vote for you and I shall do the same. I doubt Queen Cäcilia will vote for Hieronymous, so everything should go smoothly. The only thing I wish for you to promise is that you won't announce your father as one of your advisors."

"Why not?" Wolfgang looked at him in dismay.

"While I do respect King Leopold, I have noticed that he is rather manipulative towards you, and – and that he resorts to violence and pushes you so close towards your breaking point every day, which pains my heart more than you can imagine. And even though you may not see that as harmful for yourself, I only wish for the best for you."

"He doesn't-"

"He wants you on that throne so that he can use you as his little puppet. That man has been clutching onto the throne for too long now, and kingship is not meant forever. Even though I'm much older than you can imagine, I am not the first king of my court, nor the last. This is still the land of everlasting change, and even though some changes might be slow, they are still inevitable. And I believe it is time for this change to happen. This kingdom needs some new blood."

"Are you sure?" Wolfgang sounded like he began to question his father, and that's all Antonio wanted.

"Yes, I am. The welfare of this country is my topmost priority, and I believe that you alone on the throne for the summer court will improve it greatly. Maybe this intended co-ruling could even evolve into unity, into ruling as one."

"Do you really think so?"

"Yes, of course," Antonio squeezed his hand and smiled down at him to ease the serious topic. "All fae keep praising change in every aspect, so why should our governing system be the only thing that won't change?"

"Is it ... is it okay if I think about it?"

"Of course, Wolfgang."

Relieved that Antonio didn't pressure him, Wolfgang quickened his pace and playfully dragged the man back to his portal and with it back into the capital.When he quietly slid back into his room that night, his heart was still racing from everything that happened. He wished for nothing more but to talk to his sister about it, but she fast was already fast asleep, so all he did was to slide in beside her and to let good dreams sneak into his head.That didn't stop him from waking up early in the morning and unpreventably pulling her from sleep, though. No less giddy than the night before, he recounted everything that had happened, and while she did endlessly tease him and question Antonio's intentions like any good sibling would, she still supported and was happy for him by the end of his whole tale. And seeing Constanze's shocked reaction - her nearly fainting - later in the morning turned out to be the highlight of that day.

 

 

~*~

 

 

In the rest of the time leading up to the equinox, Wolfgang's father made him practise even harder and even longer, giving him barely any time to socialise with Nannerl and Constanze, or to sneak off somewhere secluded with Antonio. Still, when that dreadful day of the vote came, Wolfgang felt like he couldn't be any more prepared. Early in the morning, he was awakened by Constanze who had als brought fancier clothing with her for him to wear. It was similar to that of his father, if a bit less stuffy.  
Then, the three of them went into one of the bigger court rooms in the palace, where their father, Hieronymous and a few other people were already present. Leopold wished them a good morning, telling Constanze and Nannerl that they could sit down in the stands now, before he quickly explained how the voting progress would be held. Since Wolfgang's political knowledge had already been examined over the past weeks, he would only need to prove his magical capabilities in front of the court today. After that, a non-anonymous verbal vote would be given from each of the heads of the other three courts and if it wasn't unanimous, the further proceedings would be explained to all of them.  
"I prepared you for this, son," Leopold said and kissed Wolfgang's forehead, and he couldn't help but remember Antonio's wish. "So do not mess this up." And then he, too, went to the stands as the centre of the court was reserved for the candidates, rulers and judge.  
Alone with himself and his thoughts, he moved behind one of the narrow pedestals that were reserved for him and Hieronymous, waiting for everyone else to arrive; time that he spent observing. He was at the centre of the circular room, with the stands being located behind him and a long, curved table with four seats adorning the other side of the room. In general, the area he was standing in was very spacious, big enough to easily fit over a hundred people. Little by little, spectators startled trickling in - among them a few faces he recognised, like Lorenzo and Stephanie who actually stepped in together, holding hands - until, at the end, four people stepped into the room and let the heavy door fall shut behind them. Three of them were Cäcilia, who sat down at the leftmost side of the curved table, Rosenberg, who occupied the other side, and Antonio, who sat down beside the autumn court king.  
The fourth person seemed to be the judge, dressed in long, stiff black ceremonial robes, and he walked into the area before Wolfgang's and Hieronymous's pedestals. Slowly, the room turned quiet.  
"Today, we called for an assembly," he began, talking loudly. "To cast a vote. The fae eligible to vote are Queen Cäcilia of the Spring Court, King Rosenberg of the Autumn Court, and King Antonio of the Winter Court. The contestants for the throne of the Summer Court are Hieronymous, who stands on the western pedestal, and Wolfgang, who is standing on the eastern pedestal. Both have proven to have extensive political knowledge befitting to be a king."  
While the man was talking, Wolfgang tried to catch Antonio's eyes and to smile at him; however, the man seemed to be all business, having schooled his face into blankness and only looking at the judge.  
"Hieronymous's preferable traits listed for the throne are that he is of true blood, already has three decades worth of experience ruling, and that he has been citizen of this world since birth. Wolfgang's listed traits are ... that he is of sacred blood."At that single statement, Wolfgang had to wince and he could even hear Hieronymous snort from where he stood.

"We will now come to the display of magical prowess. Each of you is to step forwards and given three minutes to demonstrate whatever magic you wish. None of the fae in this room are to come to harm. Hieronymous, step forwards."  
Hieronymous did as he was told, his magical instrument in the form of a tall golden staff at the ready, and bowed to the judge and other rulers.  
Then, he hit the floor once with his staff, and put a glamour on the room around them, letting all the objects look like they were made out of water, and the walls like they were the ocean, before he summoned two great white sharks made out of water and let them swim through the air. He didn't keep them up for long, as he didn't have much time to demonstrate, so he let them burst right in front of Wolfgang, drenching him in water by doing that. Wordlessly, he got his own instrument out and dried himself.  
For the last minute of his display, Hieronymous created two dozen wooden soldiers or so, letting them fight an exciting battle. And then, after the man had stepped back onto his podest, it was his turn.  
At first, Wolfgang was at a loss about what he could do, but then he got an idea. Like Hieronymous before him, he put a glamour on the walls, making them look like the Night forest at night, and magicked the lights lower while he turned the floor into vegetated earth, before he made actual trees grow from the floor and created flora he had seen in the forest around the tables and trees, giving off their own light. He could hear the people in the room gasping, but the only one he cared about was Antonio, who now finally looked at him with a smile on his lips and adoration and pride in his eyes. Before he allowed himself to get distracted, Wolfgang let the artificial forest disappear again, and knowing that he still had some time left, he summoned a huge serpentine dragon made from multi-coloured flames and, thinking about what else he could do and remembering that one exercise from weeks ago, he conjured up six balls of fire and juggled them in a wide circle so that his dragon could fly through it. As a finale, he let the dragon fly towards Hieronymous and then evaporate just an inch before hitting him, clearly scaring the shit out of the older fae. And when he turned around, all the rulers were actually smiling at him! So what if he was skipping a bit on his way back to his pedestal.

The judge stepped into the middle of the room again. "Have all the voters already made a decision or should we take a short break to allow you to have more time to think about it?"

To Wolfgang's relief, the three rulers all nodded; he couldn't wait for this to be over.

"Very well then," the judge continued. "Queen Cäcilia, what is your vote?"

"Wolfgang."

"King Rosenberg, what is your vote?"

"Wolfgang."

"And King Antonio, what is your final vote?" The winter court king didn't answer immediately, keeping them all in suspense, but then he smiled.

"Wolfgang." And the room erupted in cheers. It took a while for the judge to calm everybody down again, and when they did he looked visibly annoyed.

"The vote is unanimous, so the decision has been made. Wolfgang will be king of the Summer Court. Wolfgang, former king Leopold has offered to be your advisor. Do you accept or do you wish to look for somebody else in the court?" At this, Wolfgang let his eyes wander to Antonio, who had an intense look on his face, before he answered.

"I wish to look for somebody else," he then said, and although nobody had been talking before, the room was now dreadfully silent, everybody surprised by his words. Wolfgang didn't even dare turn around.

"Very well," the judge said after he had gotten over his initial bewilderment. "The court is dismissed, then. At tomorrow's autumn equinox, King Wolfgang will hand over the crown to King Antonio. Long may King Wolfgang reign."

 

They were throwing a little celebratory lunch party in the courtyard, making use of the last staggering warm days, multiple blankets lying on the grass and food being reached around en masse. There were only a dozen or so of them, since Wolfgang didn't know that many people yet, but his heart was still filled with warmth. He was sat with Constanze and Nannerl one of the blankets - and, please, could they finally figure their relationship out, seeing them dance around each other was beginning to become annoying - with Lorenzo and Stephanie lying on the blanket next to theirs doing ... god knows what kind of public displays of attraction. Wolfgang tried not to look into their direction too much.

The only people who were missing were his father, who had disappeared from the court room before Wolfgang could even look for him, and then there was Antonio who had quietly slipped away while they were planning the current party. So now Wolfgang was kinda bored since Constanze and Nannerl were busy with each other, and idly let his glass full of mead, which was the fae's favourite drink since it was literally honey wine and most were crazy about honey for some reason, sway this and that way while looking around. Then, he saw him. A few yards away, partly concealed by the shadows the trees around him cast upon him, stood Antonio, looking at him. He told Constanze and Nannerl goodbye before he quickly walked, not ran, over to his boyfriend and threw himself into his arms. Antonio caught him, of course, and gently spun the both of them around in a circle with Wolfgang still being lifted of the ground, before he let the now king of the summer court down and leaned in to kiss him.

"You did amazing," he proclaimed after. "Your display of magic was breathtaking, as always. Even Rosenberg was impressed."

"Thank you," Wolfgang beamed.

"I thought I should give you a run-down of how tomorrow will go, since your father probably won't do that," Antonio explained and then saw Wolfgang's pout. "Of course I also came because I wanted to see you!" And then he gave Wolfgang another kiss, just for good measure.

"So tomorrow morning, Constanze will probably wake you up again and give you ceremonial robes. Then you will go into the throne room, be given the crown - which you should not put on, just hold it in your hands - and sit down on the throne. After a bit, I will walk in and up to you, and once I come to a halt you should take the crown, walk down the steps in front of the throne and then put the crown on my head. After that, you will bow and walk to the side while I go up to the throne. Aside from that, just follow the clues Constanze gives you. There is no talking from us involved, the whole thing is non-verbal. I think there used to be some ceremonial sentences once, but they got dropped sometime in the last millennia. Did you remember all that?"

He seemed serious up to the point Wolfgang nodded, which was when a big smile sneaked onto his lips.

"Very well then. Now, shall we go somewhere or do you wish to go back to your little party ..?"

 

 

~*~

 

 

The next morning went by exactly as Antonio had described it. Still being giddy about having become a honest king, Wolfgang had to physically restrain himself from wagging his knee up and down in front of the whole crowd of people that had assembled inside the throne room. Instead, he drew patterns on the crown between his hands with his fingertips and tried to telepathically communicate with his sister, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Suddenly, trumpets started playing and Wolfgang nearly fell off his chair in alarm, but then the heavy doors were thrown open and Antonio, the king of the winter court, his boyfriend, stepped in and Wolfgang felt nervous out of wholly different reasons because damn did the man look good in royal garments. And then he started walking towards Wolfgang and came to a halt in front of the steps and goddamnit they were really doing that Wolfgang had to calm his booming heart down, lest he fell down the stairs - but then he saw that most miniscule smile on Antonio's face and suddenly, he felt calm. He stopped walking a few inches before Antonio and Wolfgang knew that this was the point where he should hand over the crown, but he stalled so that he could smile at Antonio and then, in the most sudden daring, leaned forward to kiss Antonio, right in front of the kingdom.

Right in front of _their_ kingdom.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, if Romeo and Juliet are allowed to fall in love with and die for each other in the span of three days, these gay idiots are allowed to come together and be happy in the span of a month.  
> Also, I decided to address everyone by their given name because it seemed more fitting for a fae AU, but decided to keep Stephanies name instead of calling him "Gottlieb" because I'm German and it looks weird to me.
> 
> This might've been rushed but I still love this AU dearly and have got a lot of backstory for it! So if you've got any questions (which court is this and that character in, eg) or simply want to chat, come msg me on Tumblr or Twitter!


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